It might sound carping to suggest that our cryogenic engine success, demonstrated in the flawless launch of the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV)-D5, remains partial and comes too late. But that is the reality.

It has taken 20 years to complete at least the first stage of the cryogenic engine programme, which was touted to get over in 3-5 years.

Even now, a whole lot of further work is required to create a rocket powerful enough to launch a full-fledged communication Satellite that would weigh upward of four tonnes, double the weight of the Gsat-14 that has now been launched by GSLV-D5. Only after that can India claim membership of the elite club of nations capable of doing what they want to do in space.

When the Isro declared it could complete development of the cryogenic engine in 3-5 years, this newspaper's science editor of the time, R Ramachandran, had poured cold water on the claim, saying it would take a minimum of 10 years. As it turned out, even that estimate proved over-optimistic.

Now, while as part of the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR), any transfer of technology for building anything more serious than a Diwali rocket is banned, some drawings had come along with the Russian cryogenic engines that India had purchased.

The then-leadership of the Isro chose to proceed on the basis of those drawings and to learn from subsequent trial and error. Arguably, if India had gone in for development of a cryogenic engine of its own from scratch, the time taken for its development could have been shorter.

Instead of crowing over belated progress in the cryogenic engine programme, New Delhi would do well to make energetic efforts to both support indigenous research, involving the private sector, and redouble efforts to join all the four technology control regimes — the Australia Group for chemical and biological weapons, the Wassenaar Arrangement for dual-use technologies, the MTCR and the Nuclear Suppliers' Group — to dip into the pool of technologies available to members.